He wanted to determine, in part, whether management's assertion that skyrocketing salaries made for less effective players was, in fact, true.

How will it do this and still continue to pay skyrocketing salaries, among the highest in the nation, to its teachers and administrators?

With free agency and skyrocketing salaries, it has become more difficult for dynasty teams to germinate and survive.

There are straight-faced forecasts of widespread business failures, a stock market crash and a general depression with just one silver lining: skyrocketing salaries for computer programmers.

Baseball teams are no longer red-hot properties because of skyrocketing salaries, uncertainty over future costs, the absence of a commissioner, and an expected fall in television rights fees after this season.

Both strategies mean that the Mets will bend or break hard-line policies of the past and will sign longer and richer contracts with important players because of the skyrocketing salary market.

In a period when skyrocketing salaries and signing bonuses, multiyear contracts and lucrative endorsements can push annual incomes well into the millions, professional athletes as a group have become highly desirable and actively courted clients.

Not Interested in Valenzuela With the torrent of free-agent signings in the last few weeks, the Yankees and other clubs have been left with a skyrocketing salary scale and a dwindling supply of stars to earn it.

Howard Lesnick, the University of Pennsylvania law professor who proposed the public service requirement at the school, said that in recent years the combination of skyrocketing salaries and emphasis on law firm profitablility had undermined a longstanding tradition of pro bono work.

Many of the people at the hearing at the Omni Berkshire Hotel said that rather than there being another player, Umin seemed to be alluding to a trend of skyrocketing salaries that has taken place in the N.B.A. since Ewing's rookie season.

Supporters of interleague play believe it will ignite local rivalries (e.g., Mets vs. Yankees, Cubs vs. White Sox) and showcase the sport's stars in more cities, thereby boosting attendance and merchandise sales, which, in turn, will enable owners to satisfy players' skyrocketing salary demands.

Until the owners and the players realize, however, that the demand for their product is truly elastic, or that their game will be regulated, it seems even more unlikely that we will experience an end to outrageous ticket prices, skyrocketing salaries, huge profits and unnecessary and tragic lockouts, walkouts and the like.